MAYA AND FREEDOM

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Posted by: " Uttishthata " uttishthata

Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:43 am (PST)

 

MAYA AND FREEDOM - Swami Vivekananda

 

We are all like this in the world. A legend tells how once Nârada

said to Krishna, " Lord, show me Maya. " A few days passed away, and

Krishna asked Narada to make a trip with him towards a desert, and

after walking for several miles, Krishna said, " Narada, I am thirsty;

can you fetch some water for me? " " I will go at once, sir, and get

you water. " So Narada went. At a little distance there was a village;

he entered the village in search of water and knocked at a door,

which was opened by a most beautiful young girl. At the sight of her

he immediately forgot that his Master was waiting for water, perhaps

dying for the want of it. He forgot everything and began to talk with

the girl. All that day he did not return to his Master. The next day,

he was again at the house, talking to the girl. That talk ripened

into love; he asked the father for the daughter, and they were

married and lived there and had children. Thus twelve years passed.

His father-in-law died, he inherited his property. He lived, as he

seemed to think, a very happy life with his wife and children, his

fields and his cattle. and so forth. Then came a flood. One night the

river rose until it overflowed its banks and flooded the whole

village. Houses fell, men and animals were swept away and drowned,

and everything was floating in the rush of the stream. Narada had to

escape. With one hand be held his wife, and with the other two of his

children; another child was on his shoulders, and he was trying to

ford this tremendous flood. After a few steps he found the current

was too strong, and the child on his shoulders fell and was borne

away. A cry of despair came from Narada. In trying to save that

child, he lost his grasp upon one of the others, and it also was

lost. At last his wife, whom he clasped with all his might, was torn

away by the current, and he was thrown on the bank, weeping and

wailing in bitter lamentation. Behind him there came a gentle

voice, " My child, where is the water? You went to fetch a pitcher of

water, and I am waiting for you; you have been gone for quite half an

hour. " " Half an hour! " Narada exclaimed. Twelve whole years had

passed through his mind, and all these scenes had happened in half an

hour! And this is Maya.

 

In one form or another, we are all in it. It is a most difficult and

intricate state of things to understand. It has been preached in

every country, taught everywhere, but only believed in by a few,

because until we get the experiences ourselves we cannot believe in

it. What does it show? Something very terrible. For it is all futile.

Time, the avenger of everything, comes, and nothing is left. He

swallows up the saint and the sinner, the king and the peasant, the

beautiful and the ugly; he leaves nothing. Everything is rushing

towards that one goal destruction. Our knowledge, our arts, our

sciences, everything is rushing towards it. None can stem the tide,

none can hold it back for a minute. We may try to forget it, in the

same way that persons in a plague-striker city try to create oblivion

by drinking, dancing, and other vain attempts, and so becoming

paralysed. So we are trying to forget, trying to create oblivion by

all sorts of sense-pleasures. And this is Maya.

 

to be continued...

 

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Volume 2 (Delivered in

London, 22nd October 1896)

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

My child, what I want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel, inside

which dwells a mind of the same material as that of which the

thunderbolt is made.

- Swami Vivekananda